No. 95, Halal Pizzas from San Giovanni Pizza

Hey, kids: guess what time is it? It's time to restart that Long March known as 100 Favorite Dishes (INSERT YEAR). YEAH!!!

Hey, don't ding us for listicles: Weekly DataLab studies show ustedes love this gimmick, launched in honor of our coming Best Of issue. Besides, it is rather fun to do this for us Forkers--an opportunity to highlight dishes from restaurants we'll never full review, or secrets from old standbys. Anyhoo, let the march begin...

Ever since my former editorial intern, Yasmin Nouh, reviewed San Giovanni Pizza in Anaheim, I haven't been able to stop eating them. Part of the reason is proximity: it's just a couple of blocks away from where my parents live in Anaheim. But it's mostly because it's great--oh, yeah, and the whole halal deal.

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I'm a proud infidel, but one thing I've discovered about halal restaurants that try to replicate American food for Muslim dietary standards is attention to detail. So the meat at San Gio is always just a bit better than at your usual pizza parlors--the pepperoni at San Gio (as the cool Muslim kids call it) is made with beef instead of pork, while the chicken in the BBQ chicken pie tastes like a Hyberabad telegram.

And that's what I'll say for now--let's just say something bigger is in the works...

Gustavo Arellano is the editor of OC Weekly, author of the syndicated column "¡Ask a Mexican!", and Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America. He started at the paper with an angry, fake letter to the editor and went from there—only in Anacrime!